Page 308 of Alessio

Any other fucking time—any other fucking woman—and he would have really appreciated that spirit. That determination he found in her gaze, hell yeah, he would have liked it, and urged her on to show him more.

He loved when people surprised him.

Not this woman, though.

Not right now.

“Are you going to answer me, or not?” Ginevra asked.

Fine.

But he was having fun here, that’s all.

She didn’t have to know that, right?

“Oh, I tricked him,” Alessio said, grinning.

He tipped his head to the side a bit to watch her from that angle. He kept finding new things about her to stare at depending on the angle, and the direction at which he watched. Like now, he could see the way the side of her smooth, creamy throat worked as she chewed on her words, and held them back.

Come on, girl, say what you wanna say to me, I fucking dare you.

She had to know who he was.

Had to.

He just felt it in his bones.

Good.

Because he wanted her to.

She’d came into this place after him; she came here when he’d already been here. His thing—his person—was not for her. And he wasn’t going to hand it over; he would not give Corrado to anyone. They would have to take him from Alessio first.

“I tricked him,” Alessio said again, shrugging one leather-covered shoulder. “See, I knew he wouldn’t give me five minutes alone with you when, up until now, he seemed determined to keep you from me, for whatever reason.”

“I thought he was with you tonight.” Ginevra’s fingers drummed against the side of her clutch, and she glanced away from him. All those nerves—he saw it all and took them for what they were. “I saw the message you sent—that was you, right?”

“That’s how I tricked him.”

He laughed.

Ginevra simply stared.

Alessio rolled his eyes, getting bored now. “See, if I got him away from you … then I wouldn’t have to worry about him being over my shoulder when I came up here to find what I was looking for.”

But, oh, he certainly planned to have a conversation with Corrado, and very soon. He suspected the man was realizing, if he hadn’t already, that Alessio was not, in fact, at a bar two blocks away from this penthouse that he and Corrado frequented together to play pool when they were in the city.

It wouldn’t take much for Corrado to put two and two together—it always made four, after all. He’d be on his way back to this penthouse soon, if he wasn’t already, and then Alessio would move into the second thing he came here for.

Dealing with Corrado.

Letting him know he knew.

Simple, really.

“And did you?” Ginevra asked softly.

There was something about her lips that kept drawing his gaze in. The bottom lip was a bit fuller than the bottom, making her look as though her mouth was set into a sweet pout. Stained red from whatever lipstick she had been wearing earlier in the evening, the color took away the innocence her mouth might held and made him think of dangerous things.